Google paid out $6.5M in bug bounties in 2019

The total payouts nearly doubled over the amount paid the previous year.

Corinne Reichert Senior Editor

Corinne Reichert (she/her) grew up in Sydney, Australia and moved to California in 2019. She holds degrees in law and communications, and currently writes news, analysis and features for CNET across the topics of electric vehicles, broadband networks, mobile devices, big tech, artificial intelligence, home technology and entertainment. In her spare time, she watches soccer games and F1 races, and goes to Disneyland as often as possible.

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I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.

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Corinne Reichert

Jan. 28, 2020 2:57 p.m. PT

Google headquarters in Mountain View, California — Google paid out double in bug bounties for 2019.
Stephen Shankland/CNET

Google forked out more than $6.5 million in bug bounties during 2019, the tech giant said Tuesday. Its Vulnerability Reward Programs provide payouts for security researchers who find and report bugs in Google's services. Of the total amount, $2.1 million was paid from the Google program, $1.9 million from Android, $1 million from Chrome and $800,000 from the Google Play program.

The biggest single reward was $201,000, with 461 paid researchers during the year.

"Their discoveries help keep our users, and the internet at large, safe," Google said in a blog post. "We look forward to even more collaboration in 2020 and beyond."

The $6.5 million in payouts was almost double the $3.4 million awarded in 2018. By comparison, $2.9 million was paid out in 2017, $3 million in 2016 and $2 million in 2015.

Google also made $507,000 in donations to charity during 2019.